Focus on Text Part 2: Preserving Correspondence
Focus on Text Part 2: Preserving Correspondence
Using Packing Tape Image Transfers to add handwritten text in your collages without destroying your original documents.
I feel very fortunate to have a few family postcards and letters that reveal a little history in the thoughts and well wishes written before I was born.
One example is from my Great Uncle Joe to my dad who was only five years old when he received a sweet and sensible handwritten letter from his Uncle while he served in the US Army during WWII. He writes, “Will you excuse my writing, honey? This pencil that I’m writing with is too short, so I’m doing my best with it.” Also, he writes “I have to study a little bit of French this evening” after asking about his nephew learning his ABCs and niece learning to talk.
While I am willing to cut, paste, and destroy many types of papers and postcards in my creative collaging process, I wanted to preserve this letter.
As I tell my Collage Workshop participants, “I highly encourage play in the collage process. Items will be cut, punched, glued, torn, and reassembled. Do not bring personal items (such as vintage photographs) that are irreplaceable. Only bring what you are willing to destroy. You will need the freedom to create without fear to make your best work.”
So instead of using my original letter, I opted to use a photocopy with an image transfer technique which resulted in this little test collage, “A Letter Home”.
Acrylic Gel Image Transfers
I have used a process similar to packing tape transfers in my paintings for years. Acrylic Gel Transfers are a little (ok, a lot) more painstaking, but they do provide archival properties, which was important for my larger original paintings at that time.
A few examples.
In these pieces, I used copies of my pencil drawings of sea anemones, an owl, and flowers to add a graphite element to the painted surface.
Packing Tape Image Transfers - Step by Step Process
After seeing the packing tape transfer method demoed at an event a few years ago, I ran across the method again in the book I’m featuring during this series on collaging with text: “Collage Your Life” by Melanie Mowinski. And, since I have an over-abundance of packing tape (I purchased a case of tape before switching most of my order fulfillment to 3rd parties and changing my packaging to be more earth-friendly), and since I’m in a phase of art-making in which I deliberately want to create using materials I already have available - I decided to try transferring the text from my letter to my collage using the steps provided by Mowinski.
Apply packing tape over your photocopied image (in this instance, I used three strips of packing tape to cover the letter).
Burnish with a bone folder or other similar tool (I used a wooden spoon since I couldn’t find where I left my bone folder.)
Cut out the shape you want to use in your collage.
Soak the taped image in warm water or dampen it with a wet sponge.
Remove from the water and then rub the paper off the tape (being careful not to rub so hard as to remove the text). Repeat soaking, as needed.
Adhere to your collage. (If the tape isn’t still sticky, you can use a glue stick or similar glue).
For my collage, I decided to tear up an old postcard for some color and add it to the backing paper (in this case, a scrap of watercolor paper) before adding the packing tape transfer on top. I then added a couple of fiber scraps on top for decoration, as well as my typical machine and hand-stitched details.
After my experience with acrylic gel transfers, this process seemed surprisingly easy. Mowinski does note that different types of packing tape may work better than others. My inexpensive case from Paper Mart, however, seemed to work incredibly well.
I can’t wait to try it again and I hope you have a chance to try it too!
Happy collaging,
~ Jennifer
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